Valtteri Bottas believes a clean Friday will enable Alfa Romeo to display its full potential after a spate of recent setbacks during practice.
Bottas has been on an encouraging run of points-scoring form for Alfa Romeo despite having his build-up disrupted by limited on-track running.
Bottas crashed during FP1 in Miami, leaving him out of FP2, while power unit issues in Spain and Monaco left him on the back foot compared to rivals.
Bottas still managed to continue his run of top 10 finishes in 2022, with his only failure to score coming in Saudi Arabia, where he retired.
“Baku is a place with both good and bad memories for me, so I definitely hope to add some more of the pleasant kind this weekend,” said Bottas, who won in 2019, a year after he suffered a race-ending puncture while leading.
“It’s crucial we can have a trouble-free weekend: we have been having some good results despite some Friday issues so far, and if we were to fix these, we could really see the full potential of our package.
“We know we can fight towards the front when we do it and it has to be the aim here as well.
“This is a track that can produce some chaotic races so we will need to be ready to make the most of any opportunity. It could be a lot of fun on Sunday.”
Alfa Romeo enters the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend fifth in the Constructors’ Championship but its advantage over Alpine has now been reduced to just one point.
“We have done really well so far and we can be satisfied with the results we achieved, but we know we will need to keep working hard in every round to get the most out of each weekend,” said team boss Frederic Vasseur.
“We saw in Monaco how the margins are really small: you can go from P6 to P16 in a blink of an eye. This is why we need to be really sharp and make the most of every session, of every lap.
“I do expect our car to suit this track but, then again, our C42 has been performing well in all kinds of circuit so far.”
